Google released v26 of the Google Ads API on October 14. It adds Search Lift reporting, Local Services Performance Max campaign creation and an optional EU political advertising declaration for some campaigns.
Developers must upgrade client libraries and client code to use the new capabilities, and Google has published updated libraries and code examples. The Search Lift work adds a read-only keyword bundle resource for Search Lift, two new segments and 15 new Search Lift metrics, including relative search lift, normalized incremental searches and search lift impressions, which can be read alongside the campaign’s lift measurement config.
The EU political advertising flag on campaigns is now optional for campaigns and Demand Gen ad groups with upgraded targeting that positively target only locations outside the European Union and contain no proximity or location group criteria. A new field on geo target constants, campaign criteria and ad group criteria shows whether a declaration is required. Local Services Performance Max campaigns can now be created through the API, and a new customer-level enablement setting exposes the unified enhanced conversions configuration, replacing the old enhanced conversions for leads flag. Hotel-specific bid modifier criteria are renamed to apply across travel verticals.
Why it matters
The replaced enhanced conversions field and the renamed travel bid modifiers mean any script that reads them by name needs a change before it moves to v26. A workflow that always sets the EU declaration should be checked against the new geo rules.
In our reading, the Search Lift metrics are the item for measurement teams, because Search Lift studies become queryable like other campaign data. Test them on one account before building dashboards around them.
The release is also the first on the faster schedule. Google says the API is moving to two releases a month starting with v26, a change we covered in Google Ads API Moves to Two Releases a Month, Up From One. Related Google ad tech coverage: DV360 Structured Data Files v11 Reaches General Availability.
Source: Google Ads Developer Blog, Announcing v26 of the Google Ads API
